Books, exercise build bipartisanship

A Republican, a Democrat, Miss America, two Cabinet secretaries and an astronaut team up to solve a national problem.

It sounds like the beginning of a joke, but it’s the latest bit of marketing for the Department of Education’s “ Let’s Read! Let’s Move!” summer series, which focuses on engaging kids in summer reading and preventing childhood obesity.

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Congressional Republicans participated in the program for the first time this year. Guests have included House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-Minn.), figure skater and President Barack Obama’s Council on Fitness member Michelle Kwan, “The Cosby Show” actress Phylicia Rashad, members of the Washington Kastles tennis team and Sam Kass, executive director of first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign and senior policy adviser on nutrition.

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee members Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) found themselves taking turns reading a book to a rapt group of children from the Washington area during the third event in the series earlier this month. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, Miss America 2013 Mallory Hagan and George Zamka, an astronaut and deputy associate administrator for Commercial Space Transportation at the Federal Aviation Administration, also read with the lawmakers.

The group read Pluto’sSecret, a book written by staffers at the National Air and Space Museum. The tale explains how scientists and astronomers called Pluto a planet until they discovered it wasn’t.

“It’s okay to admit you’re wrong sometimes,” Bennet, a former superintendent of Colorado Public Schools, said to the group of children gathered on colorful floor mats in front of him. “It’s something to be conscious about in both school and in life.”

That piece of advice is one members of Congress might have a hard time applying in their own lives. But children’s reading and fitness make for safe common ground — especially in front of an audience who may have little idea who their celebrity readers are.

“I think Michael’s advice was right and sometimes politicians get so enamored with themselves that they don’t want to admit they’re wrong,” said Isakson, a former chair of the Georgia Board of Education, in an interview with POLITICO.

“We need to do better with [science, technology, engineering and math] and reading is the key to that. It’s not a partisan issue,” he added.